


Verbal Warfare

by I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: ... i don't know what happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 16:12:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3816730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own/pseuds/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not enough distance in the world to provide safety from the words they throw at each other, like knives, aiming for the heart and succeeding with every try. And whoever said words could never hurt was probably the one shooting them, like bullets, at unsuspecting targets, then laughing and throwing salt on the wound as their victims went down, because Kono has never seen carnage like this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Memory Of Five 0

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what happened. Apparently Kono gets really, really into her rhetoric when she wants to... My heart hurts.

It is not like they haven’t been expecting this. They have been, have been for a while. Something had broken after Colombia, and it had just kept on breaking, and they had tried valiantly to hold everything together, pretend that if they just ignored the cracks in the glass, the cracks would cease to exist. But they hadn’t, all they had done was grow larger. Until now.

It is like an earthquake has hit the office, shaking the ground so violently that it has torn it apart, until they’re standing on three separate islands, bridged only by the tattered remains of the bonds they once shared, and no one is brave enough to cross. On one island stands Danny, on another Steve, and on the last Chin, Kono, and Lou, watching in horror as the foundations upon which they have laid their love, their loyalty, and their lives crumbles before them. And they would have left long ago, turned away, and allowed their ohana to break in private, only to have done so would have meant stepping off their little island and into Steve or Danny’s space. It would have meant stepping over their metaphorical boundary and hoping to make the door without being drawn into this verbal warfare, this game of ‘the floor is lava, the sky is on fire, and no, I will not save you’. So they had remained and silently rode out the tremors.

There is silence in the aftermath, like all of Hawaii has frozen in place and is holding its breath, waiting for something else to break, because surely this isn’t it. Surely there must now be aftershocks. Surely the damage is not yet over.

Danny and Steve are both heaving, their faces red and their hands trembling, clenched into fists. They have placed as much distance between them as possible without leaving the room, limiting temptation. As if neither of them knows what they’ll do if they’re within arm’s length of each other, like neither of them knows if they’ll throw one punch or a thousand, until one of them goes down and the other just keeps on punching. So they place distance between their bodies, but there is not enough distance in the world to swallow their words, keep them unheard. Not enough distance in the world to provide safety from the words they throw at each other, like knives, aiming for the heart and succeeding with every try. And whoever said words could never hurt was probably the one shooting them, like bullets, at unsuspecting targets, then laughing and throwing salt on the wound as their victims went down, because Kono has never seen carnage like this. 

Kono wonders if Max, safe in his office, knows the only thing keeping two more bodies off his table is a technicality. She wonders, were Max to perform an autopsy should Steve or Danny drop dead before them, if Max would open up their chest and find their heart torn to shreds, every cut the shape of a letter in a word that, on its own is harmless, but when thrown together with other words, is deadly. She wonders if Max would know which words, which letters, landed the killing blow. 

This started in Colombia, and they’d thought it had ended there, too. But they were wrong. They were naïve. Colombia followed them home once already, why did they ever think it wouldn’t do so again?

Kono watches Steve open his mouth, and she can imagine the sound of him pulling the pin on the verbal grenade he’s about to throw that will destroy them all. She closes her eyes and hopes for the best, maybe there’ll be enough of them left for Max to identify them, or maybe there will be nothing left but the memory of them. The memory of Five 0.


	2. Through Many Dangers, Toils, And Snares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I can forgive you a lot of things, Danno, because you’re my dad, but I’ll never forgive you if you let Uncle Steve go."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was MEANT to be a one shot. But apparently I couldn't let that happen, so, it is now five chapters long. Huh. 
> 
> The theme song for this chapter (and pretty much the rest of the fic) is pretty much 'Amazing Grace' so I'm using it for the title of the chapters.

There’s been something wrong with her Danno ever since he and Uncle Steve went off to Colombia, and came back with the news that Uncle Matt was dead. Grace isn’t stupid, and she isn’t oblivious, she knew something bad had happened in Colombia, something other than Uncle Matt dying. And it wasn’t until the Marshals had arrested her father in front of her and her classmates that she learned what it was. Her Danno had killed a man.

Grace is a cop’s daughter, she knows the difference between right and wrong. She knows murder is wrong, but she also knows her father. She knows that, by law, what her father did was wrong, but she doesn’t know why it weighs so heavy on her Danno. He killed a bad man, he killed the man who killed her uncle. He did his job, made the world a safer place like he is always doing.

She wants to ask why whether the bad man was carrying a gun or not made so much difference in whether her daddy did right or wrong. The bad man would have come after her daddy, she’s sure of it, why else would her Danno have squeezed the trigger? Her daddy made sure that couldn’t happen. She knows what that is called, because her Uncle Steve has told her. Pre-emptive strike, get them before they get you, and her daddy did, and they took him away for it. She nearly lost him. She doesn’t understand that, and she’s not sure she ever will.

What she does understand, is that her Danno is not the same, and neither is her Uncle Steve. Their friendship is strained, you can’t see it unless you’re looking for it and Gracie is always looking for it. Ever since her parents divorced, she’s been monitoring their interactions with each other, and with their friends. Grace doesn’t even think her father sees what is happening, is confident he’d try to do something about it if he did.

And then one day Danno collects her from school, and he takes her to an ice-cream parlour, and she wants to refuse. She wants to sit in the car and stubbornly refuse to go inside until her Danno calls Uncle Steve and invites him to have ice-cream with them. She wants to be difficult, but she relents, follows her father inside. She orders a sundae that she doesn’t intend to eat, and he orders a milkshake he doesn’t intend to drink, and they sit at a table near the window, and she plays with her sundae.

“You’re leaving Uncle Steve, aren’t you, Danno?” she asks quietly when he doesn’t make any moves to explain why they’re here. He looks to her slowly, a frown forming on his face.

“Leaving Uncle Steve? Monkey, you know Uncle Steve and I-“

“You’re stalling.” Grace says, cutting him off. He sighs and stirs his milkshake with his straw.

“We had a fight, Monkey, that’s all. We’ll figure it out.” He tells her, but he can’t look her in the eye.

“That’s what you used to say about mum, and then one day you said you couldn’t figure it out and that you were getting a divorce. You can’t leave Uncle Steve.” Usually it is her Danno who makes the decisions on what is best for her, what is best for them, but her Danno hasn’t been thinking straight for a little while. It’s up to her now.

“Grace-“ his tone says he doesn’t want to talk about this, but Grace isn’t relenting this time.

“I’ll run away. I’ll run away to Uncle Steve’s and you’ll have to come over to get me, and I’ll lock you both in that room under the stairs and I won’t let you out until you’ve made up.” And how a twelve year old girl is meant to lock two grown men up inside a room escapes Grace at the moment, but she knows she’ll think of something if it comes down to it. She’ll have to.

“Grace, Uncle Steve and I will sort this out on our own. It’s nothing you need to worry about.” But Grace has heard that before, too.

“See, that’s what you said about mum, too. And so I didn’t worry, and the next thing I knew, I had two homes, and my parents could barely stand the sight of each other and it didn’t get better for a long while even though you both promised it would.” Grace is relentless, she learnt from the best. “But I’m old enough now, Danno, to voice _my_ opinion. You and mum needed to separate. You were making each other sad, and I didn’t like the idea, but I knew nothing else would work. But you can’t let Uncle Steve go, Danno.”

“Oh, and why not?” Danno asks, a small scowl forming on his face.

“Because Uncle Steve is ohana, and he’ll always take care of us. And Uncle Steve promised to bring you home from Colombia, and he did. And I can forgive you a lot of things, Danno, because you’re my dad, but I’ll never forgive you if you let Uncle Steve go.” Grace takes one bite from her melting sundae before putting her spoon down on the table. “Can we go home now?” she asks, smiling politely. Her father stares at her dumbly for a long moment before nodding stiffly and leading her back out to the car.

While they’re driving, Grace sends a text to her Uncle. It consists of two words and a period.

_Fix this._

And then she turns her phone off and puts it in her pocket.

Frowning, she stares out the window, wishing she’d had more of that sundae now, having remembered there is no ice-cream left at home.


	3. We Have Already Come

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And why, for God’s sake, why is getting Danny back from a Colombian prison so much easier than fixing something that Steve has broken?

Steve doesn’t remember who makes the first move towards the door when the dust has finally settled. He doesn’t remember much of what was said between them, only that they hadn’t been kind to each other. Kono, Chin, and Lou give them both the cold shoulder and go to their respective cars without their usual joy, and the most he catches of Danny by the time he’s recovered, is the small glimpse as the Camaro speeds past him. This whole thing is a mess, he doesn’t even remember what started it all, only that it had been coming for a long time.

He sighs heavily as he leans against the driver’s door of his Silverado. His hands are shaking, and he doesn’t trust himself to drive, so instead, he pulls himself together as much as he is able, and returns to the office. To the battlefield. And for all that this battle might have just cost him everything he loves, the battlefield has nothing to show for it. Everything is in pristine condition, as it had been when they’d arrived that morning, and Steve wants to punch something. The glass windows, maybe the smart table, just something that might make this place reflect the disaster that hit here just moments ago.

The bomb blast that left no survivors.

But there is nothing. The only things that were damaged in this explosion is them. They are all riddled with shrapnel, and it is digging its way to their hearts, and no one knows to help them, because they do not know what has transpired. Steve has never seen battle like this. Battle that is both messy, and ridiculously clean all at the same time. Battle that is destructive, and inexpensive. Battle where the dimming of your foe’s eyes leaves you with a horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach, an ache in your chest, and a burn in your eyes. And you want to punch the living daylights out of the first person who even thinks about sounding the victory call. Steve has never seen chaos like this.

He takes a deep breath in and goes to sit on the little couch in Danny’s office. The air is thick and he feels like his heart is going to break right out of his chest. It is like he is deliberately punishing himself, maybe he is, he isn’t sure. This is Danny, he’ll give anything for Danny, so why did he just spend hours, maybe it was days, taking everything Danny had ever entrusted him with and throwing it back in his face?

He jumps at the sound of his phone chiming in his pocket, and his trembling fingers managed to dig it out. He stares at the message for a long time, his brain refusing to work right.

_Fix this._

And he wants, he so desperately wants to send back ‘I don’t think I can’ and just give up, for once in his life, just respect when he has been beaten, but that is unacceptable. So instead he tries to think of some way to make things right. Tries to think of some way to repair the damage he has wrought. And why, for God’s sake, why is getting Danny back from a Colombian prison so much easier than fixing something that Steve has broken?

He buries his head in his hands and tells himself he has cried for Danny far too many times before to feel embarrassed about doing so now.


	4. 'Twas Grace That Brought Us Safe Thus Far

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Gracie, I’m taking you back to your mum. Uncle Steve and I need to have a talk.”

His grandmother used to tell him ‘son, we have fiery tempers, and we don’t know what it means to back down, even when it is good for us. So, you be careful what you say. You can’t take back words, Daniel. The body heals from injuries, but there is no treatment for a broken heart. Every hateful word, every word spoken in anger, it will leave a scar on someone’s heart that will never heal. They might forgive you the damage you do to them, but they will never heal. So you be careful, and never let your angry words fester. Never let them be the last thing you say to someone who means the world to you. You might never get to make things right’ and Danny has tried to follow her advice, he has. Sometimes he messes up, and sometimes he lets things go too far, and he can’t fix them. But mostly, mostly he tries to clear things up as quickly as possible. It is this knowledge, coupled with Grace’s threat which has him turning the car around and driving towards his ex-wife’s house instead of home.

“Gracie, I’m taking you back to your mum. Uncle Steve and I need to have a talk.” He says, and out of the corner of his eye, he sees Grace give him one of her biggest smiles.

“I love you, Danno.” She tells him, and he smiles, knowing he’s doing the right thing.

Rachel is understandably surprised to find them at her front door, but she’s happy none the less, and she sends Danny forth with commands to make things right with Steven. And Danny knows then that he has been an idiot today. Even Rachel knows that letting Steve go is a bad idea.

He only just resists flicking on the sirens and speeding to Steve’s house. Nothing has ever seemed as urgent as this to him, and he knows that is odd, considering his job, and the life he has led. But that’s just the affect Steve appears to have on everyone.

Steve’s house is empty, the Silverado is not in the driveway, and there is no one on the beach. Danny tells himself not to panic, Steve’s probably still at the office, but even as he turns the car around and speeds off towards the palace he can hear his grandmother’s voice in his head.

_‘So you be careful, and never let your angry words fester. Never let them be the last thing you say to someone who means the world to you. You might never get to make things right.’_

The panic he feels lessens only when he pulls into the parking lot and sees Steve’s truck still in its spot. He breathes a sigh of relief and parks the Camaro beside it. Flicking off the engine and all but throwing himself from the car, and racing up to the Five 0 offices.

He finds Steve in his own office, and his heart jumps slightly at this. Steve is slumped on the couch, his head in his hands and, even through the glass, Danny can see that his shoulders are shaking. Steve is crying. Super Seal is Sad Seal and Danny did this. He swallows thickly and pushes the door open, Steve doesn’t react, which, Danny tells himself, means Steve hasn’t heard him, or he doesn’t care who sees him like this.

“Babe.” Danny says, stepping inside and letting the door close behind him. “I’m sorry for what I said. Everything that I said. I- oomph!” Danny exclaims as he suddenly finds himself pressed against a very hard chest and held tight.

“No.” Steve murmurs into Danny’s ear, causing Danny to frown.

“No?”

“No more words.” Steve elaborates, without explaining anything. “No more words.” He repeats, hugging Danny tighter, and Danny thinks he understands now. No more words, means Steve is putting away his weapon and trusting Danny to do the same. Danny sighs heavily, nods his head and wraps his arms around Steve, holding on just as tight. They do need to talk about this. Need to fix what they have broken. But for now, for right now, holding on to what they were nearly stupid enough to let go of is acceptable. They can talk later, when they’ve remembered how to trust that the next time either of them opens their mouths, it will not be with the intention of breaking both their hearts.


	5. And Grace Will Lead Us Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re a big teddy bear. You’re all cuddly.”
> 
> “I’m a Seal, Danny.” Steve responds with a sniff.
> 
> “A very cuddly one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently I had my shipper glasses on for this chapter. So... nothing actually happens, the boys just admit that maybes they'd totally jump each other's bones if Danny didn't have Melissa/Amber. 
> 
> And this is the end, friends. I feel like I've just crashed the Roller Coaster of Emotion.

They stay like that for a long time, until Danny’s bad knee starts locking and he guides them to the couch, letting Steve snuggle up into his side while he massages his knee. He smiles at his friend and shakes his head.

“What?” Steve asks, looking up at him.

“You’re a big teddy bear. You’re all cuddly.”

“I’m a Seal, Danny.” Steve responds with a sniff.

“A very cuddly one.” Danny replies, smirking. Steve pokes him lightly in the stomach, earning a yelp, before he sighs and clears his face of expression. Danny knows their grace period is over.

“What made you come back?” Steve asks, and Danny sighs, biting his lip slightly.

“Grace, mostly.” He admits after a few moments. “I took her to an ice-cream parlour. I guess she remembered I did that when Rachel and I divorced, because the first thing she said to me when we sat down was ‘you’re leaving Uncle Steve, aren’t you, Danno?’” he smiles ruefully and shakes his head. “Didn’t give me any wiggle room. She threatened to run away to your house, and lock us both up in the room under your stairs when I came to get her. The real kicker though, the thing that made me really start thinking that I was making a mistake was what she said before asking to go home. She looks at me and she says ‘I can forgive you a lot of things, Danno, because you’re my dad, but I’ll never forgive you if you let Uncle Steve go’. And Gracie doesn’t say things like that unless she means them, and I knew, I _knew_ if I didn’t fix this, I’d lose her, too.”

“She’s smart, that girl of yours.” Steve replies, shaking his head. “Always knows what she’s doing.” Danny smiles, the smile of a proud father.

“Yeah, she does.” He agrees, before becoming serious again. “What made you stay?” Danny asks, indicating the office. Steve smiles, and pulls away from Danny, sitting up. Danny wants to complain the sudden loss of Snuggly Seal, but Steve doesn’t move anywhere, so he stay quiet. Steve holds his hands out in front of him, turning them over and staring at them. There is not a tremor in sight.

“My hands were shaking.” Steve admits, and Danny has a hard time swallowing the lump that forms in his throat. Steve’s hands never shake, not unless he’s trying not to punch someone.

“Oh.”

“I came back upstairs, and I wanted to break everything. But I didn’t, I came in here instead and I tried to work out where everything went wrong. And then I got a text from Grace, all it said was ‘fix this’ and I just… I don’t know, I guess I just broke.” Danny leans into Steve’s side this time, and Steve drapes an arm around him, sighing. “How did we let things get this bad, Danny?” he asks, shaking his head.

“I-I don’t know, babe. I guess we were all just… so caught up in our own problems we didn’t realize how bad things were. Chin was dealing with the whole Gabriel thing, Lou had his daughter to take care of, Kono was having her troubles with Adam, and you had Wo Fat and Doris to deal with, and I was just not coping with the whole Colombia mess. Was not coping at all.”

“This can’t ever happen again, Danny. We can’t let things get this bad again. We’re ohana, all of us. And not only should Grace not forgive us if we ruin this again, but we shouldn’t forgive ourselves, either.”

“Agreed.” Danny breathes in deeply, and closes his eyes. “We should probably call the children and tell them mummy and daddy aren’t getting a divorce.” He says, earning a small laugh from Steve.

“Yeah, probably. It can wait, I heard the make-up sex is the best.” Steve deadpans, causing Danny to start laughing.

“I can’t believe you just said that.” He shakes his head, giggling. “Sorry, babe, but I’d never cheat on Melissa.”

“A shame.” Steve replies, sounding put out.

“It’s nice that you’d be willing to jump my bones though, Steven, and if I wasn’t in a committed relationship, and we weren’t in our glass offices, which are, you know, see through, I’d probably have taken you up on that offer.” Danny admits, very seriously. Steve blinks, turning his head to look at him.

“Did we just admit to being gay?” he asks, eyes wide. Danny snorts and rolls his eyes.

“I think that might have happened, yes, though, I believe the correct term is ‘bisexual’ since we’re both most definitely into women, too.” Danny replies with a small shrug of his shoulders.

“Look at you, Mr. Politically Correct.”

“I take my sexuality very seriously, thank you.”  Danny says, giving Steve his trademark grin. Steve can’t believe he almost ruined any chance of ever seeing that again. Wait.

“You’re not going to jump ship, are you?” Steve exclaims, suddenly very worried.

“No, why? I thought we just cleared that up, babe?” Danny asks, confused.

“Well, I seem to remember you had strong opinions about people with ‘connections’ working together when one of them is not single and the other is.” Danny stares at him for a long time before nodding.

“Right, well, I’m sure our not sleeping together while I’m with Melissa would go a long way towards not ruining this whole ohana thing, so, with that in mind, I think we’ll be fine.” Danny finally says, confident.

“I guess I’ll just have to take your word for it.” Steve says with a put upon sigh, “You are the expert in these things.” Danny rolls his eyes.

“Yes, I am, babe, thank you for noticing.” He says, before patting Steve’s leg, and pulling away, getting to his feet. “C’mon, we’d better go and inform the children, before they do something stupid, like make a plan to get us to talk to each other.” Danny shudders, “I don’t even want to know what they’d come up with.” Steve also shudders at the thought.

“Let’s call Chin, and hope Lou and Kono are with him.” He says, heading out to the smart table, with Danny, confident that nothing like what had happened today will ever happen again. And secure in the knowledge that Danny would have just as much trouble trying to leave as he would.


End file.
